In Dostoyevsky’s ‘Notes from Underground’, the individual that discloses his viewpoint and which the reader becomes acquainted; narrates his thoughts that weaves a diverse perspective from human experiences. The excerpt from Existential Literature starts out with him saying that he is “a sick man, a spiteful man. An unattractive man.” Immediately this sets the stage for his instability and feeble minded resolution upon his character, personality and health condition. His insidious rambling continues throughout his dialogue, digging himself deeper into the ‘underground’ of his consciousness. He is a very observant man and knows what he likes and dislikes, convincing us that he can resolve his issues within specific conformities, but the sickness of his consciousness is what seems to crawl under his skin. He goes on to say “excessive consciousness is a disease-a genuine, absolute disease.” In the sense that his thoughts are underground; one may draw the contrast of the aboveground being a place where others within the social sphere of your life observe and interact within the boundaries of proper dissertation. Since the Underground Man’s consciousness is developed within subjective mannerisms that are molded from external forces, he realizes that his disease is from the division of internal and external forces. This leads to the calculating and statistically developing adherent qualities of man’s behavior, and decides that the most advantageous thing for man is the freedom of choice and free will. Having this freedom of choice and free will is very important to the underground man, and he goes to convince us that nothing in the world is more advantageous than that.
In Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, it is the purity, innocence and righteousness of the Knight of Faith that creates the very cornerstone of our living a predominately substantial human existence. The Knight of Faith has accepted his faith, acted on it and lives to tell of its results. Fear and Trembling starts out with narrating the biblical account of Abraham and his promised seed, Isaac his only son. Kierkegaard explores the possibilities of four different perspective narratives, detailing the attempted sacrificial death Isaac, to contemplate the paradoxes of faith and the turning points of religious belief and faith. The virtuous nature of the Knight of Faith is exemplified by his dimeneaor, conduct and pure accordance to his faith, “for he does not do even the slightest thing except by virtue of the absurd.” The absurdity is the knight’s faith and his ability to act accordingly to his faith. Kierkegaard is virtually blindsided by the absurdity of faith because of its attainability. The absurdity of believing so vicariously and subjectively to a relationship with God, willing to devote one’s actions for the sake of a theological existence and absorbing life into the religious stream of consciousness makes the Knight of Faith an object of awe and envy for a man like Kierkegaard.